I have just wrapped up three days at an industry conference and am reminded of the value of spending time listening to, talking amongst and sharing with our colleagues across this fun industry.
It was great to run into some EITK contacts old and new. In addition to catching up with @Daniel Mendez Costabel from Microsoft, it was great to connect with @Lisa O'Brien from US Bank.
Sunday and Monday were great learnings and focus on technology, and on a number of occasions utilizing the gig economy popped up, including helping translation accuracy for utilizing English agents to assist foreign language customers and visa versa. At cocktails Monday evening I spoke with Denise from Shutterstock. She shared that she realized that the contributor side of their market place was sorely lacking in customer service focus and funding. To address this, she began utilizing some of their most loyal contributors to answer many of the core questions that are asked, especially by new contributors, therefore freeing up her small internal contributor facing team to focus on the more complex inquiries.
Today’s sessions switched to focus on our People, with the morning kicking off with a presentation from Dilip Ratnam from Upwork.
Dilip highlighted 4 key problems with traditional sourcing that tapping into the gig economy can help brands solve, not just for customer service, but beyond.
- Talent Shortage
- Time Consuming
- Expensive
- Inflexible
He also shared that across their network of gig employees they are achieving an 80+ NPS rating, with 91% finding meaning in their work.
It was interesting talking with @Lisa O'Brien after Dilip’s session and hearing about her thoughts on how she could utilize customers in a banking situation with all the regulations. Interestingly her key focus was on how to train effectively, especially as she didn’t feel that had this right in a “Controlled” setting like their various contact center sites. We discussed focusing on the issues that are highly repeatable by long term customers that involve little PPI and looking at micro focused video content 5+ mins a-la-YouTube style.
As I review back through my take away notes from the sessions, I am looking forward to translating some into action, and to connecting with my EITK community colleagues and friends in Denver in September.
My last thought as I get ready to return to the office is my thankfulness for the Sun Basket Customer Service management team, leads and agents back in San Jose, Belize and our gig agents on the go, who without their day in and day out focus on managing the business and our customers I would not be able to attend these events.
A quick shout out you all your hard-working teams, in-house, outsourced, and in the gig economy that support you. Together we all make this industry better and our customer’s lives easier.
#GigEconomy#WorkforceManagement#Brett'sBlog